Westwood Looker — Long Story Short

Unfortunately, in large cities like Los Angeles not every apartment/home/space can be graced with epic architectural details. Rather, most of us have to live in spaces that are "graced" by the opposite: ugly, headache inducing, dated "details" that you wish had never been installed. My previous apartment (I moved about a month ago) was DEFINITELY one of those kinds of places. My roommate and I were in a rush to find a place in a specific area of town and basically only found one feasible option - and unfortunately it wasn't so gorgeous.

The option was located in a late 1970s mid-rise building in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The lobby resembled an early 1990s dental office and our unit wasn't much better. The lovely popcorn ceilings, blank White walls, and vertical blinds REALLY made this space eye catching (I hope you're recognizing my sarcasm.) This apartment was small, dark, and devoid of any charm, so I made it my mission to provide it with some.

Before (please excuse the horrible picture)

Renting an apartment forces you to get creative with how to "update" your space. No renter, especially a young renter, wants to invest in change a rental apartment that they most likely will move out of pretty quickly. By far, the easiest way to update a space is with paint. Painting the walls automatically makes your space look updated and allows you to make your mark on a room. For this apartment, I wanted to keep it neutral and light since we had one ceiling light (a ceiling fan circa 1987) and minimal natural light. I chose Platinum by Behr to introduce a cool Grey into the scheme and get rid the blindingly White walls.

I am a huge believer in accentuating the negative to help hide a space's flaws. The biggest eyesore in this apartment was the popcorn ceilings. I've always thought they resembled cottage cheese more than popcorn, which is even less of an appetizing comparison both literally and figuratively. Popcorn ceilings (formally known as 'Acoustic Ceilings') were hugely popular in the 1970s and 1980s as a quick way to install a ceiling, as they were blown into place by a machine as opposed to hand plastering. Because of the pseudo retro look of the ceiling, I wanted to play up that vibe by giving the whole space a 1970s meets Millennial spin.

Due to my lack of funds (yes guys, I'm not rolling in it) I had to repurpose my old furniture and buy "new" pieces from places like Craigslist and random vintage stores. I am firm believer in the power of Craigslist and encourage everyone to scroll through your local postings to find hidden treasures. I will proudly say that over half of my furniture was sourced from Craigslist (judge me, I dare you.) With a lot of patience and even more time spend on my computer, I found these pieces from good ole' Craigslist and have transformed some of them to have a whole new life.

When developing the color scheme I knew I wanted something colorful but not too outrageous. I repurposed my Greyish Blue velvet sofa and reupholstered two vintage lounge chairs in a Silver Grey Jacquard fabric. From there I layered in hints of Green with a vintage metallic Teal leather chair (thanks Craigslist.) I then chose a deeper tone of that Green when repainting some Mid-century inspired shell chairs for the Dining Room. With subtle touches of Blonde wood, raffia accents, brass trinkets, and various splashes of Blue and Yellow - "the lived-in vintage yet current mod" aesthetic was achieved.

Scroll through my new Portfolio tab here to see the full reveal!